Bhamakalapam 2 review: Priyamani, Saranya Pradeep shine in this heist film
Though the beats of this comic thriller, streaming on Aha, are largely familiar, writer-director Abhimanyu Tadimeti’s conviction helps the film sail through
With Bhamakalapam, writer-director Abhimanyu Tadimeti introduced us to Anupama, the bumbling neighbourhood YouTuber/part-time sleuth whose life is never devoid of a misadventure. The 2022 film saw how she self invites an ‘entanglement’ involving an antique golden egg, a nexus of criminals, a few dead bodies and even an unhinged Godman awaiting the descent of the Lord himself. Needless to say, Anupama finds herself unwittingly at the centre of this mess.
Stakes are evidently higher in Bhamakalapam 2, the sequel that pushes this promising ‘franchise’ character deeper into comical danger. The new instalment partly acts as a redeeming exercise for Anupama following the ordeal she and her family endured in the events shown in the first part — fittingly, the film starts with her taking the pledge that come what may, she will not invite trouble for herself or her loved ones. We see that Anupama’s personal life, which also includes her passion for cooking, takes centrestage in the sequel while her slightly patchy relationship with her husband too finds a spot in the focus.
Director’s conviction shines through
And yet, trouble comes calling for our own desi, an equally clumsy version of Johnny English. Bhamakalapam 2 has a starkly funnier tone about the way it unfolds but with the film now foregoing the intimacy of the first part in exchange for a high-stakes game, that is soon morphed into a daring heist (A Delicious Heist Feast, reads the tagline). While the golden egg carried a price tag of Rs 200 crore in part one, the new artefact is a cocaine-filled rooster smuggled from Italy valued at a whopping Rs 1,000 crore. And to justify this, the film welcomes a new lot of vibrant characters, including heavyweights of the crime world, an aspiring starlet, a vile cop and a few more.
Abhimanyu Tadimeti doesn’t seem fully at ease at handling his newly augmented world but what helps him sail through is the sheer conviction. The design of the criminality in the film comes off as a tad unoriginal, in that it relies mostly on archetypes as characters; the gangsters boast a kind of Tarantino-esque irony and humour with their underlying motives to chase the prize remaining largely generic. Consequently, the actual heist playing out in the film works to a middling effect because it is compelled to rely on a broad-strokes, familiar approach. But the filmmaker treads on because he is aware of the pulse of the film that he is making. His ambition, thankfully, remains measured throughout because he is aware of the fact that he has set out to make a heist movie for a very specific viewer.
In-form Priyamani and Saranya Pradeep
What works incredibly well in the film’s favour is its fondness for its many characters. Abhimanyu’s screenplay doesn’t bother delving too much into details but outlines its characters with great care and helps us understand with tremendous clarity their place in the large scheme of things. One of the brightest features of Bhamakalapam 2 is how, in almost a Donald E. Westlake manner, it takes us through one important character after another with dedicated intro scenes that not only get the job done but also add a layer of vibrancy to the film. It doesn’t take much to surmise why the said cop, Sadanand (played with panache by Raghu Mukherjee) is the way he is or what really motivates Seerat Kapoor’s character Zubaida, despite the supposed shallowness of her personality, to be so vindictive.
More importantly, it’s the crackling chemistry between Priyamani and Saranya Pradeep that does the heavy lifting in Bhamakalapam 2 and it helps the cause that both actors find themselves in superb form when in one another’s company. With echoes of Jandhyala’s Chantabbai, the ill-fitted and equally ill-equipped duo playfully wades through one difficult situation after another and elevates the film to a new high. One of the pre-climactic scenes involving a cookery competition, when Anupama is forced to pass instructions to Shilpa over the phone, perfectly captures the essence of this dynamic.
Other cast members, including Anuj Gurwara, Sundip Ved, Nanda Gopal, Rakesh Rachakonda, etc., make solid impressions with their performances and grasp the energy of their respective characters really well. Deepak Yeragara’s cinematography is conspicuously handsome with Prashanth R Vihari’s score functioning as per requirement.
The one bone to pick with Bhamakalapam 2, though, is that in comparison with its predecessor, the film has a considerably smaller scope for the arc of its protagonist. While the 2022 film utilised its contained world to develop a flawed yet endearing central character in Anupama, the sequel only makes fleeting attempts at taking things up a notch in this regard. We sense glimpses of an inner conflict, of Anupama suggesting that she must not be relegated to being a housewife when she can actually pull off a full-blown heist. Of her being reduced to simplistic tasks like learning to drive a car when she has the wits to take on international criminals. Of her husband unwilling to fathom that, quite truly, she is meant for bigger things.
However, the haste with which the narrative in Bhamakalapam 2 moves forward does not offer its character the required space for a proper expression of that frustration, of that feeling of being stifled. Maybe Anupama deserved a scene wherein she vents it all out and gives her husband, in particular, a piece of her mind? Well, I'm probably nit-picking now. We now know that Bhamakalapam 3 is confirmed to be in the offing and that Anupama is only growing leaps and bounds — so, the minor grimaces don't necessarily matter here, do they?